How I Simplified My Life - <AUTHOR> http://www.ridinginshoppingcarts.com/post/33988718367/how-i-simplified-my-life <comment><USER2> I don't get it.

As someone currently living out of a 40L bag [1], I don't feel any great cognitive load or emotional weight lifted. We sold all of our stuff (books, desks, cars, house) in order to do a round the world trip. The process really sucked.

You do save money from living without cable or not buying so much 'stuff', but I find that to be the limit of the benefit. I have no reason to believe that we won't be buying back many of the things we sold prior to travelling. In all honesty, living out of a bag makes me want more. I miss having more than three shirts or two pairs of pants to wear.

Minimalism is fine, but all the proselytizing around it makes no sense to me.

[1] <http://orofino.me/daniels-rtw-packing-list/>

<comment><USER3> _Minimalism is fine, but all the proselytizing around it makes no sense to me._

It's just the next iteration of "I don't have a TV", now that not having a TV doesn't mean much anymore.

<comment><USER4> Obligatory Onion reference: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man- constantly-mention...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly- mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think I'm definitely owning "stuff" other than:

\- phone

\- tablet

\- laptop

\- desktop... maybe

\- desk

\- desk lamp

\- desk chair

\- bed

\- clothes

When I moved to New York I got rid of almost all my stuff. I went and bought some furniture though, which I now regret. Still, at least its Ikea, which I view as single use (meaning you get rid of it when you move).

New York is a particularly interesting one for this. So many times I see posts of people moving to here that say something like "Looking for a quiet 2 bedroom apartment in UWS/Chelsea/West Village for $2000/month", which apart from being completely unrealistic leads to the inevitable exchange:

Me: do you need a 2 bedroom?

Them: yes

Me: why?

Them: err... (I've always had one|for my stuff)

Me: that'll cost you $4000/month in your listed areas. A 1 bedroom will cost you $3000 or under.

At this point people have to choose between location, money and stuff. Some choose stuff and move out to Brooklyn, NJ or Queens. Others choose money and pay it anyway. Many choose location and downsize. NYC forces this choice where many places don't or at least not to the same degree.

Fight Club said it best: the stuff you own ends up owning you.

Seriously, I hate it.

<comment><USER6> The hassle of having to purchase replacements for things you've left behind or thrown away starts to gnaw after a while, unless you have a large discretionary income and possibly assistants.

Things like tools and a box of bits make all the difference between something taking 5 minutes or potentially having to wait until after the weekend and a chunk of a day running around looking for things, or up to a week's wait for orders to come in from online.

Living in hotels makes it clear to me how much I hate being away from my stuff. So many simple things turn into major logistical and scheduling problems.

<comment><USER7> I think many people here are confused as to what constitutes "stuff".

In your example, you find your box of bits and tools extremely useful and they make your life better with essentially zero maintenance cost or ownership burden. They take up very little space, and are not big and heavy to move with you.

This is not "stuff" these are valuable things in your life. Keep them!

"Stuff" are usually physical objects you have that probably get a tick in one or more of the following boxes:

a) High cost of ownership (monthly fees, or regular maintenance)

b) Requires payments just to keep/use as intended (still paying it off / satellite radio fee)

b) Big and / or heavy. They take a lot of space to own, and to move with you.

c) You use them infrequently, and don't particularly get enjoyment when you do (the "good" wine glasses for example)

These items you can remove from your life, and you will be happier for not having them.

<comment><USER8> > _I think many people here are confused as to what constitutes "stuff"._

I think you're just redefining "stuff" to suit your argument.

In normal terms "stuff" means "physical things".

You're redefining it to mean "physical things that aren't worth keeping".

If "stuff" only means "physical things that aren't worth keeping", what's the name for the "stuff" that is worth keeping?

<comment><USER7> > You're redefining it to mean "physical things that aren't worth keeping".

Of course, because we're talking about reducing clutter from our lives. So by definition if something is not worth keeping, you should get rid of it.

> what's the name for the "stuff" that is worth keeping?

Sometimes I use the word "possessions", or more verbose, the things I own that I get great enjoyment from.

People seem to think this is all black and white - i.e. OMG, you need to get rid of your bed and toothbrush and soap otherwise you have too much "stuff". Move over into the grey area.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I still never understood how having cable or a tv complicates people's lives. Besides the inconvenience on the day it was installed, it has essentially been no hassle. The money comes out every month, I schedule some shows I like and watch them when I can and that's it.

All the purging and living with no items type of lifestyle is nice for me to think about but I have hobbies that require stuff like rock climbing, backpacking, play guitar, etc. so I can't really just live in an empty room.

Instead of trying not have stuff in general, I try to not have things I don't need or want.

<comment><USER10> I think mainly because it either becomes a time drain, that once you go without you usually realize you don't miss, or it's a waste of money (you only watch one or two things but are paying $100 a month). This whole simplify philosophy usually involves getting rid of anything with a yearly commitment, which cable often has (to get teaser rates).

<comment><USER9> I understand, I've just never thought of tv complicating my life. I was once considering "cutting the cord" and my life got more complicated trying to figure out what services to use to subscribe to my shows I wanted to watch, managing downloads and trying to see if it made financial sense.

I do agree with the general consensus that people should try to simplify their lives if they feel they are bogged down with unnecessary things though. So, I'm glad the OP could find something that worked for him.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What living like a nomad really is:

One of the reasons I quit being a pilot was because of that lifestyle: my life consisted of 2 bags and hotel rooms. If you don't stay at least in a couple of places, you will have no friends. You will be alone, always. You will never develop true connections to another human being. Being alone will affect your personality and judgement. Co-workers do not count, just as you diablo 3 friends. When you talk to me on IRC you create a distorted version of me, based upon your life experience. Specially in poor languages like english. Understanding others is way harder than it seems. It envolves much more than just conversations.

My father was a pilot for 37 years, he currently does not have one single friend except me. Not because he can't make friends, but I think people realize that his feelings against others are superficial. He wont care because having friends never changed his life, he is just fine, but: He experienced very little fulfilling moments in all that period of his life.

Life is not simple. Throwing away stuff will not make life better, or worse.

TLDR, How the hell are you going to solve human problems if you don't develop deep human relations?

<comment><USER12>
        Specially in poor languages like english.

How is English poor?

<comment><USER13> My interpretation is that the grandparent either has poor English skills himself, or is describing the difficulty of socializing with people who have poor English skills.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Comments like "cancel your gym membership" make me think of something like "use a PC from 1995" as an equivalent idea. I like the idea of minimalism but in general downgrading your ability to function (such as using less productive tools/working out in an environment that is less efficient/less likely to promote productivity) is not the right way to go about it. I understand the POV as stated, but it could be mis-applied and cause many people to get lazy and float along/use less sophisticated tools.

<comment><USER15> It also depends on the circumstances, though. And I've found the problem with gym memberships is that it adds a small obstacle to keeping up exercise habits if you're moving around as often as this guy, and that can make a significant difference. If you've got to find a good gym and sign up to it and potentially have the hassle of only using it for a few months so you can't get the benefit of a 6 month contract, etc, then it's easy to decide to not get a gym membership. Running can provide a lot of the benefits with a lot less hassle.

<comment><USER16> Aren't there gyms with a national presence. The gym I used to be a member of had either locations or deals with other gyms basically all though Europe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Before getting married, my husband spent several years getting rid of most of his stuff. By the time we got married, he literally had one suitcase of clothes, a car, laptop, and golf clubs. As for me, I had shelves full of books, old papers, yearbooks, photos, drums, costumes, snowboard, etc. You get the idea.

So, I asked my then-fiance for some help. Here's what we did.

Phase 1 - Sorting: My fiancé came over and took all of my possessions and dumped everything onto my living room floor. The pile looked like a big ugly hill. I never imagined that I had so much stuff because when it was all so organized back then. He also brought a bunch of file-sided boxes with handles from Staples, and brought in the large outdoor garbage can (the huge one that you put out on the curb every week).

We then got to work. We had boxes for things to keep, things to give away and the large trashcan for things to throw away. I sorted through everything until the floor was clear.

Phase 2 - Digitizing: We then went through a digitized everything that could be digitized. Photos were sent to a photo scanning service. Yearbooks, journals, birthday cards, important books, etc were torn apart and put through a fujitsu scanner. For things that couldn't be fed through a scanner, like my drums and gifts that had sentimental value, I took a picture of it and donated it. This was a large project that took several months.

Phase 3 - Detaching: There were things from phase 1 that I knew I didn't want to keep, but that I didn't want to get rid of either. So I kept those things in boxes in my closet until I was ready to get rid of it. It took probably several months to a year to get rid of some of those boxes. Keeping those items in boxes helped me to detach from them emotionally until I was ready to get rid of them. However, there were some items that even after a year and a half, I still was attached to. So my husband took them out and put them in our living room again so that I could face it. I eventually got rid of those things too, but I took a picture of those items so that I could still keep the memories of what those things represented before donating them.

<comment><USER18> Something about this story makes me uncomfortable but I can't put my finger on it.

<comment><USER19> For me, it was the digitizing phase. Tearing apart a yearbook, page by page, and feeding it through a scanner? Taking a picture of something you got as a gift and donating the actual thing?

Sometimes an item exists just to be itself. A yearbook doesn't have any value if it isn't yours, or if you don't invest it with some. If you decide you don't want something, fine – but it seems very strange to keep around a formless simulacra of it.

<comment><USER20> I lost my HS yearbooks before I could digitize them. Its freaking impossible to find another of those things.

A fujitsu sheet feeding scanner has been the single most liberating device I've ever owned.

When you cut apart something like a yearbook to scan it, its almost a religious experience. In faith, you sacrifice the book's corporeal form so that its essence can ascend into the cloud and live forever.

<comment><USER4> My HS yearbooks were destroyed in a flood. I felt bad and nostalgic for a couple of days. Now it's just a cocktail party story about how I lost my yearbooks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I really need to read a woman's reaction to this article (will share with a few friends right away). _If you can achieve this beyond a bachelor pad, the weed that you are smoking is indeed of very high quality._

<comment><USER22> Concur. I lived out of a suitcase for years. It was quite handy back when I was a student and moving from place to place every 4 months.

But then I moved in with a girl after school and all that went away, we needed to buy kitchen shit, dvd shit, bedroom shit, shit to hang on the walls, stuffed animals from thinkgeek that look like sushi, etc.

<comment><USER7> I assure you, you didn't _need_ to buy dvd shit, you only wanted to.

As someone that hasn't had a TV for over 6 years, it's amazing how much more time you have for the things you actually want to do in life.

<comment><USER22> Uh huh. [http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly- mention...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mentioning- he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/)

Sometimes the things you want to do in life are things you can do with a significant other, where your mutual interests converge.

I hope you find someone who is as interested in smug one-upmanship as yourself.

<comment><USER7> > I hope you find someone who is as interested in smug one-upmanship as > yourself.

Thanks for the kind words.

My girlfriend loves hiking, camping, walking to the library, knitting and hand crafts. We honestly don't have time for "dvd shit" in our lives.

<comment><USER23> Congrats. Awesome! I'm glad you still find ample time to tell other people about it on the internet though. Without you, no one would ever know what it is to escape the grips of a television and experience a real life.

<comment><USER7> You're in the comments thread of an article about simplifying your life and having less stuff, and you sarcastically criticize me for suggesting you remove TV from your life. I offered that advice because I honestly think it's helpful.

What were you expecting to find when you came to these comments?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> There is a reddit dedicated to this at <http://minimalism.reddit.com> but sadly it has become more of a "look how cool I am because I only own 4 things!" type of community in recent months.

</comment><comment><USER25> So basically you live like a leech or a hobo, bumming on other peoples couches. How "Zen" of you, "dude".

<comment><USER26> Beside the fact that OP "just moved to a new apartment in Tel Aviv", could you name any way in which nomadic lifestyle would be un-"Zen"? Do you mean it's morally questionable?

I'd argue with that, as hosts probably offer their place after weighing cost/benefit ratio (e.g., inconvenience and risk vs. acquiring new connections), but I'd like to know an alternative opinion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I have the impression tha for many people writing these kinds of posts, much of their world (hobby, work, etc) is actually online. Then I wonder, did these people cut down on software, too? How many webapps do they use? How much of a mess is their Dropbox?

I, for one, have had a very chaotic period of life or a very simple and structured one, best visible by how much a mess my computer was. Only regarding material goods seems a bit half-assed then, imho.

<comment><USER28> The difference is that physical goods have a much higher cost of maintenance than does digital ones.

I have way too many games in Steam and other digital storefronts, but I catalog the ones I care about and have come to the understanding that there are probably some games I will never play/finish. Those ones I just hide and never look at again. It's harder to do that with a boxed game on a shelf, which you need to keep room for, pack away when you move, and ensure it stays in reasonable condition.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Check in comments how they celebrate not having kids... If you can't live simply with kids, then simple is not good way to live :).

<comment><USER30> It depends on the lifestyle you want to lead - my wife and I aren't interested in having kids so we're able to get away with having less stuff. On the other hand, her sister has a son and it's quite obvious that you need a lot of stuff to make things easier - pram, cot, changing table, toys, books, etc.

As an aside, having an ipad seems to help keep the baby entertained with interactive books, music, TV shows, musical instruments like drums and pianos. I can see apps do away with many physical items the way digital music has done away with the CD - which I think is a positive thing as it reduces waste.

<comment><USER31> > As an aside, having an ipad seems to help keep the baby entertained with > interactive books, music, TV shows, musical instruments like drums and > pianos.

I hope you change your mind if you have kids. Living life in a 7" box is sad.

<comment><USER30> The crux of my message was that my sister-in-law's son gets to enjoy a plethora of different toys (and he really does love them) that aren't injection-molded fossil fuel by-products.

Another way to look at it is that he wouldn't have most of those toys if they were physical items - a free piano app beats that $20 toy piano that his mum glanced at in the shop and decided not to buy because she needs to buy more nappies.

It's also interesting how, because touch-input results in a direct and near- instant output, that it can be understood by an infant quite rapidly. To them an app is a real mechanical object.

<comment><USER32> But shapes, textures, smells, etc are important too. A cheap rubber toy piano might very well be better than an app. Not to mention that they're easier to share with other kids.

Personally, I can't picture my childhood without those "injection-molded fossil fuel by-products" called LEGO.

<comment><USER30> > But shapes, textures, smells, etc are important too.

He lives in a three-dimensional world, so I don't think he's missing out on any of those things. I'm not arguing for the elimination of physical toys - merely observing that apps have their utility and are less wasteful, resource wise.

> A cheap rubber toy piano might very well be better than an app.

Depends - physical things have a certain barrier to ownership: money. The toy he never had is easily beaten by the free/99c one off the app store. The fact that a tablet is expensive isn't lost on me, but for the amount of utility it has served it's basically paid for itself (it's his dad's tablet).

> Not to mention that they're easier to share with other kids.

Sharing is important, but it's worth noting that with apps you can have collaboration - he and I can play instruments together (like the free split screen piano or guitar apps) or play basic games all on a single screen. Of course physical things do this as well - my intent is to show that apps can be treated like physical objects.

> Personally, I can't picture my childhood without those "injection-moulded > fossil fuel by-products" called LEGO.

My nickname is Uncle LEGO - he won't be missing out on that stuff. He's stuck with DUPLO until he's older though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I have been thinking about this issue a lot recently. Sometimes clutter seems unavoidable, such as when you want to learn or do something new. When I first got into photography, I started off with one DSLR and one lens. Then I kept adding lenses. Turns out I also need to clean the sensor since dust accumulates when you change lenses, so I ended up getting lens cleaning kit. Next, I had to upgrade my camera, because it was not sufficient for photoshoots (got invited to a few events non-professionally). Then you got to pay for websites, online storage, this and that. And then you get a bag, a tripod and the list is endless (I have been postponing buying the tripod). There was also a ripple effect. My laptop display was not only short for image editing, but it was displaying colors incorrectly. So I had to get a new monitor, and I had to spend extra time researching whether the colors will display correctly or not. All these add up. Sometimes I just want to sell everything and get one camera and one prime lens, but I am afraid of "missing out". May be thats not true. I haven't found the alternative. But for what its worth, I have had a good journey so far.

If one wants to reach a higher level than an amateur, it looks like extra items are unavoidable. Similar arguments go with say learning oil painting or say charcoal sketching. When you are a programmer, would you prefer to work with a single laptop or with an external keyboard+mouse+large monitor?

<comment><USER34> Honestly, you can take good photos with a phone. It's about composition and timing. If you are a professional photographer, better than 98% of people in the world, an expensive kit might take you to 99%. As an amateur, the gap between your ability and a pro's will never be filled by the 1% improvement nice gear will make. So many of these "hobbies" are actually rich people giving themselves a reason to buy expensive toys.

<comment><USER35> Your percents are way off. Sure you can take OK photos with a phone—maybe 2% of the time you can take a good photos with decent camera. As the name implies, photography is first about light. A good camera and lens immensly expands the definition of what acceptable light is. An off-camera flash will make a night and day (pun intended) difference in your photos.

You mention timging. Autofocus speed and accuracy, shutter lag of DSLR and phone camera are not even comparable.

In short: moving from phone camera to an entry level DSLR with kit lenses will already be a huge step up in quality of your photos. If you understand what you are doing buying expensive lenses will add a noticeable increase to that as well. Then if you understand what are you doing and do it a lot buing a professional body will get you durability and the maximum control over the process (and ability to control aperture, shutter speed and ISO does matter too).

Yes, if you "get it" you can take a good photos with the phone if you are if conditions are favourable. But if you get it, then using DSLR will let you take more good photos, because the limits of favourable conditions are expanded a lot.

There is some truth in your last sentence, however from technical point of view, even is someone "does not get it" and would take crappy pictures on the phone then with an expensive kit he can have pictures of the same crap but with much higher quality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> My personal test for whether or not a possession is worth keeping is "do I know immediately why I haven't thrown in out?" If I struggle for even a few seconds to justify owning something, it goes on the first-to-go list when I do a purge or just feel like tidying.

</comment><comment><USER37> My favorite trick is asking myself before buying something whether I would buy it again if I lost it.

</comment><comment><USER38> I really like the idea, and it came at the right time when I just moved and it's time to throw away stuff, but I keep wondering about things like:

Books - Chances of me reading the same book again are slim. But it's really hard to let go of them. I now own an e-reader, but even if I could get all of those books on it (which seems impossible, if not very expensive and for no good reason), I would feel something missing. Then again, they do take much space, gather dust and are likely to be left untouched.

Gifts from people - whilst I can relatively easily throw away stuff I bought, it's so much harder with gifts people gave me. It almost feels like betraying them.

Any practical or (pop)-psychology suggestions on how to get over these hurdles?

<comment><USER7> Books: Book are expensive, voluminous, heavy and costly to move about. There is absolutely no benefit to actually owning your own copy when you can borrow it from your local library with extremely little effort. Get rid of them.

Gifts: My friends and family have a new policy for gifts: "No stuff, only experiences". I don't want a DVD or a book, but I'd be grateful for some French lessons, or yoga classes, or a cooking class, or... (insert _experience_ here)

<comment><USER35> What's the use of cooking class if you have no pan to cook in? Honestly, this is such an artificial separation. Watching a DVD or reading the book is an experience. What if it is an educational DVD? What if the thing is a telescope which can provide many nights of an amazing experience?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> I run periodic purges of my possessions. Often, in 3-4 months, my situation may have changed and things that were once useful are no longer needed. Fortunately there is a charity just down the block.

You don't notice how excess stuff gets in your way, until it's gone. You can start with one area at a time. Zenhabits was surprisingly motivational for me in this respect.

Books are the only possession I have many of, and that's by choice.

One quibble: If a gym membership can be replaced by jogging, then you aren't using the gym correctly. Strength training is a very different beast. You can get a pretty good strength workout with bodyweight and home dumbbells, but it's tough to match barbells.

</comment><comment><USER40> We just moved across the country from California to Virginia. We didn't have much in the way of furniture before, but we did give everything away that didn't fit into the bed of our truck.

When we arrived we made it a point not to buy a single piece of furniture. We relied entirely on unwanted furniture of friends and the Craigslist free section. With the help of our pickup truck we had a fully furnished home within a month for nothing more than the cost of gas. Next time we move a long distance we'll just give it all away and collect all new furniture at our next home. Its really liberating not being attached to anything in our home.

We don't pay for anything more than cable internet, pre-pay data and basic utilities. We don't even have a TV. We get all our movies and entertainment at the library for free. They allow for up to 6 DVDs for each of us, so we really don't miss TV or cable.

We also use Google Voice for all our phone calls and texting. We have a single Android phone and a $30 pre-pay plan with T-Mobile for going out. We use a couple voip apps so we can have both of our numbers available on the phone. Most of our calls and text messaging happen on our computers anyway.

We save on water by leaving the bathtub plugged up after our showers. This water goes into buckets throughout the day to flush the toilets. We never use the dishwasher and we wash laundry by hand when it's not a heavy load. This saves us as much as $40/mo on our water bill.

We aren't poor and could live much more luxuriously, but we choose to live this way in order to gain a richer experience of life.

</comment><comment><USER41> Not sure about the car idea. It's quite useful to have one.

Alternative hints :

\- thumb rule "if you have had this stuff for 6 months but have not used it yet/removed it from its box and installed it/repaired it, then it's a waste of time and space - throw it/give it/sell it."

\- then try to remove "things" from your life to measure how you feel about not having them. You'll be surprised about how many things are not really making you more or less happy. Hint: the really important things are what you usually take with you when you travel, like a toothbrush - and by improving these things you use daily you can create a much better experience for yourself

\- when you move to a new place - only take 2 bags worth of stuff. Pareto law- the rest is certainly not that important to you

\- in this new place only buy stuff you need - and after needing it twice, without writing down a list. If you can't remember to buy it, you don't really need it.

\- experiment! Each person has "important things". What is applicable to me may not be to you. I mostly eat fresh food at home, and only cook with a microwave. I don't need any other "cooking paraphernalia".

OTOH, the most important thing to me is shower gel - I buy a bottle with a different smell each week :-]

For the author - if you want a tropical place with friendly people and great coffee shops, come to the FWI :-)

<comment><USER9> How are you preparing your fresh food solely with a microwave? Do you follow a raw diet? Or do you steam vegetables in a microwave? Interested to hear.

<comment><USER41> It's easy :

\- I eat all my vegetables raw: apple, lettuce, tomatoes, red pepper... The only "non fresh" vegetables I buy (for convenience - can't find it raw where I live) is frozen broccoli which is perfectly unfrozen in the microwave, not steamed.

\- besides vegetables, I mostly eat rice, eggs, fish and meat. Rice provides some glucids - and it cooks quite well in a microwave.

Fish is also easy to cook in a microwave - I loved boiled salmon with pastas, olive oil and goat cheese, but now most of the time I prefer canned mackerels because they come with a variety of sauces so I don't have to prepare them.

For meat, I've had decent result with frozen "cheap" (high fat) ground beef. I put it in a bowl- it releases grease when it's cooking in the microwave in a way that make it tasty to me (and the grease is left at the bottom of the bowl so it's easy to remove). It's not quite like boiled meat - closer to what a hamburger meat taste, and it's quick to prepare.

I know it's a weird diet.

In fact, I came to this diet not by any specific health concern but by time optimization. I like my meals to be quick and easy to prepare - if they need more than 6 minutes to prepare, I'm not interested. Cooking stuff takes time (heat transfer, etc), so most of the "cooking" was removed.

I then made my diet healthier, tweaking here and there (a bag of pop corn is quick to prepare, but maybe not that healthy) following various ideas. This caused some interesting changes - like raw eggs.

At the moment, I still keep the 6 minutes maximum limit every day, while eating was is generally considered healthy - basically it's a raw diet with varied vegetables each week, only with rice and meat being cooked. I add canned oily fish + frozen broccoli for the convenience, and I still do a bag of popcorn time to time.

<comment><USER42> > I know it's a weird diet.

Not at all, sounds pretty close to what could be considered Paleo/Keto (bsides the rice)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I've gotten rid of cable. But the biggest time saver has been to reduce the number of my acquaintances to the minimum. I have no kids. A cat is more than enough.

<comment><USER30> I've gone the other way - done away with TV and collecting things so that I can spend more time being social. I have more money and time to spend on going out for dinner and drinks with friends, time to play online video games (social to a very fine degree I guess, but better than passively watching something on TV), and time to take my dog to the park every night (rain, hail or shine) where I talk to other doggy people and my dog gets some Doggie Facebook time in (sniffing other dogs behinds).

To me, being social is a huge driver of happiness and contentment. If you want to escape the pursuit of owning things - turn off your TV for starters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> I have lived in both worlds: having lots of stuff and having next to nothing. The latter is better, IMHO. I do not really care about minimalism or environmentalism or anything like that, it's just that less stuff = less stress for me, and more freedom. Having accumulated a buttload of stuff (mostly thanks to my girlfriend! :D), it now costs me about $1000 and a solid two days of work to move (if movers are hired, which is almost required unless I can get external help for free). I used to own just some clothes and a computer, and moving was stupidly easy. I have moved over 20 times in the past 12 years or so, which means quickly learning how to not get attached to junk.

</comment><comment><USER45> "Be as mobile as possible" is what this guy is saying.

How do you do that? Avoid responsibilities in one particular place and only buy products you can't live without.

Big deal. I don't see what's so special about it.

</comment><comment><USER46> I always loved when Jamie on Mythbusters pulls out some stuff from his workshop. I have TONS of "junk" and it makes huge difference in my life. Otherwise I would spend 50% of my time searching for stuff I already had, but throw away a few months ago.

This also applies to IT geeks. What would you do when your cool Macbook dies? Do your work on Iphone until the replacement arrives? I would just take replacement from drawer, restore backup and be back online in 30 minutes.

</comment><comment><USER47> I plan to hold a "get gifts from me" birthday event this year.

</comment><comment><USER48> Shouldn't the last sentence, "The benefits of telling the truth far outweigh the cost of lies" read "the ratio of benefit to cost of telling the truth far outweigh the same ratio for lying"? Weighing the benefit of one thing against the cost of another seems like a non-sequitur.

</comment><comment><USER49> Guess I'm there. All I own is a backpack full of dev hardware and a carry on roller bag full of clothes, shoes, and toiletries. Have been renting cheap shared places off airbnb past 3 months instead of always paying to have a private place too.

</comment><comment><USER50> am I the only one that stocks up on paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, household cleaning items, spare towels, another pair of sheets, different sorts of toiletries and backs of those toiletries so that I'm not going to the store all the time. This stuff takes up room!</comment>


America's Competitors Angle for Silicon Valley's Business - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/trump-h1b-visa-silicon-valley-immigration.html <comment><USER2> Visa availability is not the magic ingredient to replicate Sillicon Valley. High wages and high concentration of talent are. What would entice an Indian or Eastern European developer to move to Mexico?

<comment><USER3> Beaches and a relaxed pace of life, not unlike that of the Balearic coast instead of aggressive dog eat dog of SV culture?

It is different but some people might like the more relaxed atmos.

<comment><USER4> Interestingly, beaches are inversely correlated with economic activity.

See [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/full/nature15725.html)

Optimal average temperature for economic activity is 13 C, San Francisco average is 14 C.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have thought about moving to South America and opening a startup there. I just don't know that there is sufficient talent to build up a team. We can't even fill our open positions in Southern California. I am curious, how many engineers from Silicon Valley would be interested in moving to South America? Mexico? Has anyone taken a poll?

<comment><USER6> If you become a remote company, this problem is solved. There's a HUGE pool of talent working remotely. Don't isolate your options to one narrow locale.

<comment><USER5> Good point. But I enjoy working with people in person, having stand-ups, etc. While I could see maybe 50-75% of the team working remotely, I would still want to have some local team members. I guess there is one way to find out: post some jobs and see if anyone bites.

<comment><USER7> What part of that is important to the business and others?

<comment><USER8> A startup is an organization in search of a business. As such, frequently collaboration needs to be done in person. Actual businesses have an easier time with remote workers.

<comment><USER5> This. Collaboration is key for a startup and that's best done in person.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't see highly skilled personnel being all that keen on moving to Mexico. Canada, however, already has a few areas that seem primed to attract new talent, particularly to cities like Vancouver.

Edit: I suppose Vancouver wasn't actually a great example. I just really like that area.

<comment><USER2> Vancouver has the high COL of the Bay Area with significantly lower wages. I don't see it becoming a major player.

<comment><USER10> I live in Vancouver, can confirm. Maybe after a significant liquidity event or two pumps some capital into the local ecosystem, but at present there are few (if any) world class tech companies here and despite the incredibly high and fast rising cost of living, wages are actually the lowest of any major Canadian city. Sure its a desirable place to live, but few world class talents are going to relocate here to work for second or third tier companies, for 50% less than they'd make in other markets, when a 30% more of their salary will be going to housing costs. Vancouver is a real-estate city, not a tech city and likely always will be.

<comment><USER11> I think there are a few like Arista Networks, Facebook and Amazon. You might make 80k+ and spend 15k on housing and the general cost of living is still lower than SF. Just yesterday I meant some SF based founders come visit because of tax credit incentives, lower labour costs, COL, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm still undecided on the startup rule but it seems to me that it's still worth raising the minimum H1-B wage if it can increase the wage of the average american tech worker.

</comment><comment><USER13> The notion of "good" or "bad" all depends on what you value. If you value the economy above all then this is good for companies outside the US, bad for companies inside the US. If you value jobs for your own citizens over money then opposite is true: better job opportunities for locals, bad news for corporations (at least in the short term).</comment>


Magic the Gathering for Med Students - <AUTHOR> http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/04/26/bisa0426.htm

<comment><USER3> This is awesome. Why limit it to infectious disease? Acute non-infectious disease (trauma, vascular events, cancer) would be a great next step, followed perhaps by common disease. This would be a tremendous way to learn pharm. At the end of the day, rote knowledge can lay down a nice structure for actual understanding. (I know this sounds backwards, but if you know the right answer then it makes it easier to remember the mechanism by which it is correct.)

</comment><comment><USER4> I think games would be a great way to learn a lot of things. If I ever get time I want to make a "pathogen" video game - you would have to identify the pathogen and attack it with the right antibiotic or immune system component.

<comment><USER5> Games can be a good way to learn a lot of things, and so can simulation for the more complex situations. There is a push for using sim and serious games in medical education these days (went to a great conference a few months ago about it - IMSH 2010). It's funny you mentioned the "pathogen" video game - <USER2> made one a couple of years ago in residency called Bacteria Tower Defense (flash game). And it's designed so it can be easily updated by changing the data "file" to reflect changes in antimicrobial therapy. I'm actually working with several academic centers now on integrating that and my current project, SimCode ACLS, a web-delivered real-time simulator to improve the quality of teaching healthcare providers how to resuscitate people, while decreasing the cost of training and competency tracking. Will be presenting it at a national medical conference (SGIM) this week.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, Bacteria Tower Defense is along the lines of what I was thinking of. Simulations are good too, but video games can combine screwing around with actually learning something.

If you did it during a residency I guess I have no excuse.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is right up my alley. I'll be going to med school in a few months, and so I'm looking for study materials and methods (I plan on trying Anki). I think it's great that they're trying to make the study of medicine a bit more enjoyable than just rote memorization. Also, as someone who hopes to venture into entrepreneurship as a physician, it's really encouraging to read about such ventures.

<comment><USER7> Do it! Anki is amazing. Unfortunately, I have yet to manage to convince anyone else to use it... I can see how it can look intimidating. It's a big commitment to have to do expired flash cards every day! OTOH, things you put into Anki you can remember for the rest of your life! I wish I had it when I was in school. There's so much I've already forgotten...

Can you imagine if doctors remembered everything they ever had to memorize in med school?

<comment><USER8> > Can you imagine if doctors remembered everything they ever had to memorize > in med school?

It'd be pretty amazing! Which is why it's unfortunate that we don't have a close approximation to that with a man/machine interaction, where people do the hard-to-automate bits, and machines do the rote memorization bits. The first diagnosis expert system to beat human doctors (in an admittedly narrow domain), MYCIN, is now something like 35 years old, and yet doctors still rarely use computational assistance. Or at least, they don't officially: I know plenty of doctors who use Wikipedia in their daily work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There was a bit of a huff over it today, one of the main pieces of art they are using is heavily based on a piece from Magic the Gathering. <http://www.mananation.com/art-plagiarism-healing-blade-game/>

</comment><comment><USER10> The only trouble I see with this is that it needs to stay up to date with current medical knowledge (which changes all the time). The game will quickly go out of date if it is not kept strictly aligned with current medical texts.

</comment><comment><USER11> If I recall correctly, there was some anecdotal evidence that time committed to video game actually improves a surgeon's capabilities during an operation. If a card game can do the same for pharmacology, cheers to Nerdcore!</comment>


Copyright Holders Want Netflix to Ban VPN Users - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-holders-want-netflix-ban-vpn-users-140917/?imm_mid=0c3621&cmp=em-prog-na-na-newsltr_20140920

<comment><USER2> When it comes to media companies the customer is always wrong.

Those juicy local licenses are too good to pass up. Forcing local in a global economy through lawyers and the NSA/FBI. Welcome to the new masters of the universe.

Let's not forget, these Australian customers are paying for Netflix!</comment>


Common Data Structures Explained with Videos and Exercises - <AUTHOR> https://medium.freecodecamp.org/10-common-data-structures-explained-with-videos-exercises-aaff6c06fb2b <comment><USER2> From my experience working with people learning programming, many students have a fear of linked list and trees. They buy coding books and practice problem sets about linked list and trees.

Little do they know (a few years down the road), most of them will get work experience and complain that nobody uses linked list and trees. Heck, when a problem presents itself where linked list might be a great solution, they probably won't think to use it.

I think that this system of constantly bringing up linked lists, stacks, and queues for data structure is broken. A better format for teaching data structures would be to train the student's ability to come up with the right data structure for the problem they are solving. The ability to come up with solutions specific to a problem is the real skill and this skill will empower engineers come up with stacks, queues, linked lists when they need it.

Here's how I would teach data structures:

Ask student: 1\. Let's say you want to build an elevator system. What classes would you need, and what properties / methods would each of them have?

2\. You need to build a restaurant game. What classes would you need, and what properties / methods would each of them have?

\+ a list of many other questions

Follow up to each of these questions would be for students to implement their data structures with provided assets to see their implementation come to life. Throw in firebase (realtime db) so students can interact with each other's games helps them see flaws in their implementation / data structure design. Its a great data structure + application development practice.

<comment><USER3> I think that your method for teaching data structures wouldn't work in practice. I don't think many students can arrive at such data structures on their own. How many students can you expect to come up with the implementation for a dictionary who have only ever heard of and used lists and arrays?

The analogy in math would be to expect students to derive the pythagorean theorem from scratch. Not only would this be a difficult task for most newbie mathies, you would also have a significantly smaller proportion of students arriving at the formula than by conventional means. It would be much more effective and efficient for a larger demographic of learners to show them the formula, explain how it's derived, and have them then apply it over multiple examples.

<comment><USER2> I see where you are coming from, pythagorean theorem is a bit of a stretch. Here's one:

First you teach someone how to carve wood and basic physic. Then you give them different hypotheticals and have them build things that solve these problems. This helps them really understand the problem and how to solve different problems using their skillset. With this, they will be able to build what they need (boats, house, tables, chairs, etc.). Conversely, if you teach a student how to build a boat over and over again, I doubt they would be able to build a house.

Fundamentals: Classes, arrays, objects

Everything else is derived. Linked lists, trees, are not fundamentals.

Again, this is just my observations and I wanted to share.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think that understanding how common data structures are implemented is a worthy endeavour to understanding the foundations of your craft. There will also be a (very small?) subset of developers who really _need_ to understand them well because performance and optimization is their everyday job.

But I get very frustrated whenever I see an argument for learning them like this one: "...knowing how to implement these data structures will give you a huge edge in your developer job search..."

This is what makes me worried/frustrated about the prospect of interviewing for a future software engineering job: the worry that they'll ask me programming trivia and miss the point that I'm kick-ass at my job and bring great bottom-line value to the company I work at.

On another note, I was playing Human Resource Machine recently and on one puzzle I said to myself, "this is a linked list!" having learned about it from an MIT lecture I watched at bedtime months before. Very satisfying nerd- validation.

<comment><USER5> A developer who knows the basics will have less chances of doing stupid mistakes when dealing with algorithms. Data structures are the bread and butter of coding.

Like all things, if you want to make a high building, you better have a strong base.

Now it's true that the grunt of a programmer's work won't be such a problem, especially since there is a need for more coders out there.

But still, I'd still prefer being conservative and be sure any average coder (even more so for an engineer) knows about some data structures.

I still vividly remember that time some student argued that vectors and lists were about the same thing.

<comment><USER6> Perhaps I am missing something, but aren't vectors and lists almost equivalent?

<comment><USER5> Well yes, but the big difference is that you don't have random access with lists, you have O(n). Bjarne Stroutup talked about lists too.

<comment><USER6> That's more of an implementation detail of C++, no?

<comment><USER5> Not really.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2_aWCzGMAwI3W_JlcBbtYT...](https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2_aWCzGMAwI3W_JlcBbtYTwiQSsOTa6P)

Some more decent data structure vids.

</comment><comment><USER8> "This embedded content is from a site that does not comply with the Do Not Track (DNT) setting now enabled on your browser.

Please note, if you click through and view it anyway, you may be tracked by the website hosting the embed."

</comment><comment><USER9> I have to share, I've had a long day. I read the headline and clicked through with a bizarre mental image that I was going to find some mechanism by which pull ups, squats and pushups would allow me to understand red-black trees and bloom filters.

</comment><comment><USER10> Is there something like this for Python?</comment>


Ask YC: Choosing advisors for your Startup? - <AUTHOR> I'm interested in finding advisor's for my startup. 1.Is it necessary at the start. 2. Am I jumping the gun before I have a finished project. 3.When should or should I even bother finding people to help guide me. Thoughts please. <comment><USER2> My advisor's are actually people that I already knew and are experienced entrepreneurs that I kept going back to for advice. I didn't seek them out and say "will you be my advisor?", it just naturally occurred. The advisor's I have are people that know and trust; they are also people that have 'been there and done that'. I have found my advisor's to be a great source of experience that I can tap into, and they are also great at keeping me focused and grounded - I tend to get too excited and carried away with my ideas.

It's always a good idea to find advisor's/mentor's that can help guide you along a successful path, and with whom you can bounce ideas off. I found the best way to find advisor's is to just find someone experienced in what you need advice in; if you keep going back to them for advice, then they naturally become your advisor's.

There are also different types of advisor's: business advisor's, technical advisor's, funding advisor's. Therefore, the type of advisor you need really depends on what stage you're at. Ideally, you would find one that has experience in a range of areas.

Have a read of: <http://venturehacks.com/articles/advisors>

<comment><AUTHOR> Would you ever trust a VC to be an advisor? (A VC not funding you.)

@All, thanks for the input so far. Given me a lot to think about and consider.

<comment><USER3> Umm ... if they're a VC and they're your advisor, why are they not funding you? One possible explanation is that they don't believe in you, and unfortunately this is what most outsiders will automatically assume.

It's not really a question of trust.

<comment><AUTHOR> Really good point. More to it than that, but thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There's not a formal line you cross where you say, "OK, now I need advisors". Talk to experienced people, get advice, and make the people that give you good advice your informal advisors. It's easier if you let it be a natural process, rather than a forced "advisor recruitment drive". It's never too early or too late for good advisors. A Board is a different matter entirely, and something that someone more qualified can comment on.

</comment><comment><USER4> Just get investors. All good investors are advisors. And if an advisor isn't willing to invest, that's a worrying sign.

<comment><USER5> Isn't that a little more complicated than finding an advisor? Investor- advisors would be preferable, but not all good advisors are investors (?)

<comment><USER4> You can have informal advisors who aren't investors. But it's usually a bad idea to have a board of advisors, for example, or to give stock to people who want it in return for being an advisor, yet for some reason don't want to actually invest in you.

The one exception is when you're a grad student and start a startup based on your research. Then it's common to give your (faculty) advisor some stock.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1\. IMO yes. My first action--after carefully sketching and editing a two page business plan--was to seek a team of advisers to provide feedback and advice.

2\. No. All I had was an idea, a 2 page document with bullet points outlining the idea and key issues (and seven months experience at an Internet startup following graduation).

3\. Right away. I reached out to a co-founder of Google and a partner from Sequoia, both of whom I hadn't met, and they both have been kind enough each week to give me 45 minutes or so over coffee or the phone. Along with two friends I've known for the past two years this advice has been instrumental in helping me get the demo going.

CAVEAT: Don't confuse advisers for team members. Although they are great and essential to have, my team is definitely more key to me.

</comment><comment><USER7> A good business mentor/advisor can be extremely helpful at the start, although finding one can be difficult if you don't know what you're looking for, which was my experience. My first business mentor, while excellent at running his business, didn't know anything about running a startup or web business. While much of his advice on running the business on a day to day basis was invaluable, he was pointing my business partner and I off in the wrong direction long term. We ended up wasting a lot of time focusing on the wrong areas. We had similar problems with other advisors. We even had one attempt to defraud us into giving him control of the business. Basically, our advisors were no wiser than us on how to do a startup (rather than a lifestyle business) but we were too naive to see this and far too often blindly followed their advice.

Over time we became quite jaded about having advisors due to repeated bad experiences. We decided to implement the policy 'never take advice from someone who's not a millionaire'. We also learned to trust our own judgement and gut instinct a lot more and it often proved correct (not always though :-). Eventually we found a successful entrepreneur in a comparable field who was able to give us excellent advice. Because of that advice our startup is now growing in leaps and bounds.

I know I probably sound quite negative about advisors but I believe the right advisor at the right time to can mean the difference between success and failure. I experienced what happens when it goes wrong and the business was lucky to survive it. If you can't get the right advisor (someone who's both successful and in a similar field) you're probably better off with none at all. I don't want to sound like I'm blaming them though, most were well intentioned, excellent at their chosen professions, and I'm still grateful to the time they gave to me. However, I was 19 years old when I began my startup and still very naive and in a catch 22 situation. I knew I needed advice but didn't have the experience or someone to advise me as to who to get advice from. In hindsight, had Paul Grahams essays been available back then it would have saved me a lot of pain as that's exactly what I needed to know. I expect that since everyone here has access to them they'll be better equipped to avoid making my early advisor mistakes.

Oh, and just a small observation I've noticed with advisors. The better suited they are for your business the less they need to say. They can just cut through the crap and tell you what you need to know. The more they talk the more it's likely that they're well meaning but don't really know what to tell you so they tell you everything.

</comment><comment><USER8> Startups are freaking hard - simply because it is very easy to screw up lots of things and any one of those could be easily fatal.

You might already know that startups are hard, but in all liklihoods you won't know what 'hard' means.

Value an experienced startup entrepreneurs advice more than anything you learnt at school, and hunt one down as soon as possible.

</comment><comment><USER9> We've had "brand name" advisors before. I suppose you think of them like decals on NASCAR cars. The question ought to be, "did anyone on Hacker News ever get any benefit out of having advisors?"

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd like to have more seasoned advisors.

Is this a situation where a market could exist? Some kind of matchmaking system for founders/mentors independent of the YC/YC-clone world?

<comment><USER3> You need your advisors a lot more than they need you.

That said, this is not a bad idea. StudentBusinesses.com is a site that's solving this problem for young entrepreneurs who need advice & resources.

<comment><USER5> Looks interesting except for the student slant =) I think I just reinvented the Go Big Network. I'm going to see what that's all about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Discussed here at another thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=105144>

</comment><comment><USER11> 1\. No.

2\. Yes.

3\. When you find you are out of your element, for example when raising financing or negotiating an acquisition.</comment>


Small explosion: Render graph without edges - <AUTHOR> http://anvaka.github.io/ngraph/examples/fabric.js/Node%20and%20Browser/index.html?graph=noLinks&n=1000 <comment><AUTHOR> Use mouse wheel to zoom :)</comment>


Happy Programmer Day - <AUTHOR>

Its 256th of the year :-) <comment><USER2> It's official:

 _MOSCOW, September 12 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree instituting Programmer Day that will be marked on September 13 (the 256th day of a year) and September 12 in a leap year, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday._

[http://www.itar- tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14324034&...](http://www.itar- tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14324034&PageNum=0)

</comment><comment><USER3> So what are we going to do to celebrate "Programmer Day"? Clearly, I'll have to celebrate by digging out some old coding projects and reminiscing. ;)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm having such a great time telling all my friends about this :) (who are also coders)

<comment><USER5> something similar here.

I'm going to write about this to my girlfriend (who is a wanna-be-hacker). Now I have another reason to speak to her.

This day also has another significance. It's on this day that IBM introduced the first storage disk unit the RAMAC 305 in 1956 and it stored 5 million 8-bit characters.

source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMAC>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> By that logic...

the 2nd,4th,8th,16th,32nd,64th,128th days

are all days of the programmer.

I guess we're just cool enough to get "sum(x +=x while x < 256)" days each year

<comment><USER7> Umm... you mean "8", right?

<comment><USER8> Nope, he really means 2.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That's so 8-bit!</comment>


List of 19 jobs thought to improve the world the most - <AUTHOR> https://80000hours.org/job-board/ <comment><USER2> I keep trying to take these guys seriously, but every time they put AI/AGI as top level threat and I just can't take them seriously after that. I really enjoyed yesterdays article on this topic: [https://backchannel.com/the-myth- of-a-superhuman-ai-59282b68...](https://backchannel.com/the-myth-of-a- superhuman-ai-59282b686c62)</comment>


Storm Area 51 - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Area_51,_They_Can%27t_Stop_All_of_Us <comment><USER2> This will be a case study for media classes to come</comment>


A Sloppy Land Surveyor Almost Caused a War Between Missouri and Iowa - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/honey-war-missouri-iowa-border <comment><USER2> I have two favorite missurveyed landmarks:

1\. The Four Corners monument marking the spot where borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. Even after several lawsuits and court rulings, it's still off by half a kilometer or so. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_Monument#Misplace...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_Monument#Misplacement_controversy))

2\. Prime Meridian mark (that goes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich) is off by 102.5 m. ([https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gec- nature-sc...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gec-nature- science-moderated/ANkXU1I5pzA))

<comment><USER3> _1\. The Four Corners monument marking the spot where borders of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. Even after several lawsuits and court rulings, it 's still off by half a kilometer or so._

Reading the Wikipedia article, it appears that the monument is off from its originally intended position, but that it has been confirmed by the courts that the surveyed markers supersede the written descriptions and therefore define the border. In other words, it makes no sense to say that the four corners marker is misplaced as it is by definition where the corners meet.

<comment><USER4> Another interesting example of marks and boundaries in the physical world superseding surveys and agreements is the USA/Canada border west of the great lakes. While officially the 49th parallel, the border was manifested in the real world as a series of straight lines between hundreds of monuments. These were set down without GPS, and at times wound around obstacles, so there's a fair degree of variability in how close these monuments actually are to 49deg: [http://www.confluence.org/country.php?id=3#NOTES](http://www.confluence.org/country.php?id=3#NOTES)

The zigzag is actually fairly easy to see on Google maps, because the border is maintained by both the US and Canada, clear cutting the lines in forested areas. This highly visible physical boundary is the true national border.

[https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/a-not-so- st...](https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/a-not-so-straight- story/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Such carelessness was fairly normal for the time: the surveyors were often under pressure to complete quickly, even in the worst territory, with poor equipment and little actual training. On top of that, they were often bribed to move boundaries one way or the other, or interested themselves in engaging in land speculation, so were less than honest in their surveys.

Anyone interested in this fascinating history should read Andro Linklater's _Measuring America_.

<comment><USER6> AtlasObscura has another piece on early American surveying: [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ohio-public-land- survey](http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ohio-public-land-survey)

PDF linked from that seems interesting if a bit dry: [https://www.blm.gov/cadastral/Manual/pdffiles/histrect.pdf](https://www.blm.gov/cadastral/Manual/pdffiles/histrect.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> North Carolina and South Carolina just resolved their border as of this year:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carolinas#Boundary_between...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carolinas#Boundary_between_the_states)

The new border goes through the middle of at least one home:

[http://www.wral.com/home-divided-between-nc-sc-after-law- red...](http://www.wral.com/home-divided-between-nc-sc-after-law-redraws- border/16397902/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Boggs is the same who issued the infamous Mormon extermination order.

<comment><USER9> That occurred only months prior to these two militias nearly squaring off. Seems as though Boggs had a big ego, and bit of a bloodlust

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Tennessee and Georgia have been in a somewhat long-running dispute over a surveying error with their shared border. Georgia seems to be particularly interested in the water in the Tennessee River, which would flow through GA if the border were moved. This has led to some humorous moments, e.g. "[i]n 2008, former Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield sent an aide, who reportedly wore a coonskin cap, and a city councilman to Atlanta with a truckload of bottled water during a previous chapter of the dispute."[0]

0 - One of the more recent articles about this hullabaloo: [http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2017/feb/26/f...](http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2017/feb/26/floridruling- could-have-implications-georgia-/414769/)

<comment><USER11> Looking at the map:

[https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-85.5122947,11.71z](https://email@example.com,-85.5122947,11.71z)

I was initially very impressed at Tennessee's resolve in protecting the water. Just a few miles later, the river flows into Alabama, where I initially thought that Tennessee would cease to care about what happens downstream. But then I looked further and realized it flows back North through central Tennessee.

What's stopping Alabama from selling the water to Georgia?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Poor geography knowledge did cause a war between Ohio and Michigan: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War)

As the joke goes, Ohio won, but they still had to keep Toledo?

</comment><comment><USER13> We in Iowa are happy with the result - we lost a row of counties and Missouri gained them. Net result: the IQ of both states was improved.</comment>


Low-Tech Camera Uses No-Tech Gravity to Drop Viewers Into the Pool - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121856740339434067.html

<comment><USER2> Pretty neat. Technically things all fall at the same rate in a vacuum, but will vary slightly due to air resistance. I wonder if the camera was designed at all to have similar aerodynamics to a diver, or if the probably tiny difference is just easily accounted for by the pan and tilt.

<comment><USER3> Once they're done with the tumbling, divers are minimizing their drag. I'd be surprised if they actually got to terminal velocity by the time they hit the water. Drag increases roughly with the square of the velocity. If they are nowhere near their terminal velocity, the effect of drag is going to be pretty low for most of their fall. If the divecam's terminal velocity is also suitably high, then the difference in acceleration won't be very much in the first several seconds.

IIRC, terminal velocity of someone trying to be streamlined is over 120 mph. 9.8 meters per second square is about 22 miles per hour. Drag is going to rear it's head in a big way only after 5 or 6 seconds. By the time drag force starts to really shoot up, the divers have already hit the water.

Okay, I just Googled terminal velocity. We should probably expect 160-200 mph terminal velocity for an Olympic diver.

<http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml>

(For those with access to dive video, who want to check my reasoning out, remember to start counting seconds only after the divers start going _down_!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> When I was an undergraduate, an adjunct professor in film did something like this, to film a point-of-view shot for a character falling to their death.

It involved, a rope, a camera, a pulley, and some work gloves. Very effective, but low tech.</comment>


Consulting Medieval Manuscripts Online - <AUTHOR> http://www.utm.edu/staff/bobp/vlibrary/mdmss.shtml

<comment><USER2> This is really great.

By the by (and I know that this is about to sound like an ad, but I have no connection, I'm just someone who likes printing out old books scans and sticking them to my walls), if you want large-scale color prints of this stuff, I've had good luck with Shortrun Posters -- they focus on churning out one size of poster super-cheap, so the prices are way lower than I've found elsewhere. If you stick to the default options, you can get 18" x 24" posters shipped for like $4 each.

[http://www.shortrunposters.com/posters/18x24.html](http://www.shortrunposters.com/posters/18x24.html)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the link!

My first though was exactly this: print some and put on the wall.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very cool. These historical images would benefit from metadata (at least time & location) annotation, to improve discovery and visualization. E.g. placing documents in the context of J.B. Spark's 4000 year Histomap.

[http://www.bookofjoe.com/2012/04/fromdavidrumseycomrand- mcna...](http://www.bookofjoe.com/2012/04/fromdavidrumseycomrand-mcnally- published-amateur-historian-john-b-sparks-the-histomap-four-thousand-years-of- world-histor.html)

<comment><USER5> I've got a project that is trying to do just this sort of thing, check out [https://retred.org](https://retred.org)

You can go to a time and place and see exactly what kind of events were happening at that point of time. I haven't opened it up to things yet, but am planning to pretty soon!

<comment><USER4> Looks promising!

The closest projects I've seen are [http://pleiades.stoa.org/home](http://pleiades.stoa.org/home) for Ancient GIS open-data and an iOS App with a timeline database, [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timeline-eons- free/id4333521...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timeline-eons- free/id433352152?mt=8)

Edit: David Rumsey's classic site has many historical maps & charts, e.g. [http://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2012/3/28/timeline- maps](http://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2012/3/28/timeline-maps)

<comment><USER5> That's really cool! The problem seems to be that for all these things the data isn't stored anywhere in an easily digestible format. It would be great if you could query something and procedurally generate any of these graphs.

<comment><USER4> DBpedia appears to have historical data extracted from Wikipedia, not sure how usable it is: [http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.4138.pdf](http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.4138.pdf)

Found a UI demo & thesis project for DBpedia GIS: [http://latemar.science.unitn.it/spacetime/usecase.html](http://latemar.science.unitn.it/spacetime/usecase.html) & [http://latemar.science.unitn.it/spacetime/FabioValsecchi- the...](http://latemar.science.unitn.it/spacetime/FabioValsecchi-thesis.pdf)

<comment><USER5> That's where I've got all my initial seed data from already!

<comment><USER4> Does that mean you've converted it into a more digestible format that others could use :)

<comment><USER5> I have - you can checkout [https://github.com/twistedvisions/anaximander](https://github.com/twistedvisions/anaximander) and build it using my parser from a dbpedia dump!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The Aberdeen Bestiary I was looking for manuscripts with pictures - but bonus get the translations as well [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/](http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/)

Of mice

The mouse is a puny animal; its name, mus, comes from the Greek, the Latin word deriving from it. Others say mures, mice, because they are produced ex humore, from the damp soil, of the earth; for humus means earth and from that comes mus, mouse. Their liver grows bigger at full moon, like the tides rise then fall with the waning of the moon.

</comment><comment><USER7> I helped to create the software for the two projects from Würzburg, including the 3D bookshelf using WebGL ([http://vb.uni- wuerzburg.de/ub/lskd/regal.html](http://vb.uni- wuerzburg.de/ub/lskd/regal.html)).

</comment><comment><USER8> Highly recommended: Aztec codices, especially the ones with pictures. Looks like modern psychedelic art of some kind but is in fact made centuries ago, sometimes by their priests.

For the rest: it's amazing to see how back then simply writing was way more of an art than it is now. It's no exception that the writer would use 2 or more colors even for simple text, for example just to highlight capitals. Don't think I have ever seen anyone doing that in the present. Also the maps from those days often look like sceneries from some fairytale with nicely drawn castles etc. Not like your average roadmap :P

<comment><USER9> Related: When the Spanish invaded and conquered the Americas, they burned just about all the Mayan books be a use they were "heretical":

> In particular, all those in Yucatán were ordered destroyed by Bishop Diego > de Landa in July of 1562. De Landa wrote: "We found a large number of books > in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be > seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they > (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much > affliction."

No wonder those people "regretted" it, it was newly all of their written culture being destroyed. Imagine if some aliens invaded Europe and burned all these books and all that was left was 3 books.

<comment><USER10> Unfortunately only 3 of these Mayan codices have survived (imagine inferring 1,000 years of Western civilization from a comic book, an almanac and a prayer book). Here are some of the codices which contain very accurate astronomical forecasts on Venus, Mars, eclipses and the sun:

[http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/marhenke.html](http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/marhenke.html) or also: [https://archive.org/details/Ancient-Books-All-Rare- Collectio...](https://archive.org/details/Ancient-Books-All-Rare- Collections_Of_CODICES)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For everyone asking for metadata, I recommend the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (link: [http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/schoenberg/index.html](http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/schoenberg/index.html)).

They have a weekly data dump, as well as a three-year overhaul underway. Wonderful, wonderful community around it, with a deep commitment to open data. If you have any suggestions for the database's future you'd like to see, I'd be happy to say it forward or put you in touch with somebody (I interned there last semester).

</comment><comment><USER12> Thank you for sharing! I'm part of a medieval and reinassance dance group, we study manuscripts and books about music and dance of those centuries and organize events so this link will be very useful to us!

</comment><comment><USER13> Very cool!

And there are more on the way: NTT Data signed in March [1] an agreement with the Vatican Library to digitize 82,000 manuscripts.

[1] [http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-library-and-japanese- firm...](http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-library-and-japanese-firm-ntt- data-sign-ac)

</comment><comment><USER14> Tangentially related: does anyone know good sources to find 3D data of old objects (e.g. old roman arches, museum objects, etc.) ?

<comment><USER4> Thingiverse has a few scans from the Met, Brooklyn, Asian Art museums.

<comment><USER14> cool, thanks :)</comment></comment></comment>